muxme

I think this site and the amount of hate/doubt I've received is driving me insane. Sorry.

You're saying the picture with the bank statement? Or are you talking about the Official Rules portion?

That's fair feedback. I appreciate it. The website is what I do for fun, so there's no professionalism. I literally make no money from the site. If you think the site is a scam (or if you just want to say Hi), you're free to call me at the phone number listed in the footer.

If I wanted to sell email addresses, I'd just use the GitHub API (https://api.github.com/users/codingdave).

Only problem is charging money is illegal. I was thinking of "implying" that you may have to pay one day, and having the register button say "Sign up for your free trial", which will be an infinitely long free trial. But then again, the site is all about trust, and you've already tricked them from the start with this method.

Yeah I tried the approach of a quirky, 1 owner website, and it didn't work. I'm still trying to clean up all the jokes, memes, etc.

Hmmmm, yeah I can see how a first impression is that the site is a penny auction site. I definitely need to rethink the front end design and UX flow. Maybe don't even show the prizes until they've registered.

Thanks for the feedback. This is great.

Hmmm, I'll try removing the countdown timer.

The site does use a template. I actually tried making it look generic because I went with the approach of "this website is owned by 1 person and you can trust him". That didn't work. I am going to redo the front-end and make it look like a company owns the site. I'm thinking something similar to how http://gusto.com looks.

I'm hoping to one day have companies pay to have their prizes featured on the site. It'd be like Google / Reddit advertising except the advertising is a prize, not an ad. I tried the non profit approach but everyone doubted me, so I changed it. But right now, everything is out of pocket for me.

Yeah I realize the "mux" was a mistake. I thought it was clever, but these people don't have the time to read what a multiplexer is. Literally every time I tell someone to go to my site "MuxMe" they say "Is that a porn site?". I can change the name in 2 seconds, I'm just thinking of what to change it to. I like the idea of a FAQ, I need to add that.

Currently users land on the prize page, and either register or they don't. They don't click the "how it works" or any other pages, so I'm focusing on optimizing the prize landing page right now. I think I might add a video avatar (like this http://www.pt-hr.co.uk/) that explains how the site works on the prize pages. I can see the Hacker News guys are interested in the "How it Works" page, but the typical user doesn't click that. I definitely need to update it with something that's easy to understand, it's on the list of a million things to do.

I'm running into this problem on my startup website (http://muxme.com). I've found that the more evidence I provide that the site is real, the more people start to question it. I.e. I post pictures of the receipt of purchase, open source the raffle code script, have a live drawing, post the winner's usernames (which reveal quite a bit about them if you google them, I encourage them to change their usernames), post USPS tracking numbers, post my phone number and address, and everyone still thinks the site is a scam. Out of every company / website I've worked on, I've never had people so skeptical of giving a name, email address and phone number. I've made websites where I charged money and had better growth!

This is some real feedback I've received:

"It sounds like a scam to me. If you want to try to scam people by getting them to click on your fake website, you should have enough common sense not to use the website as your username. Better luck next time!!!!"

"Scamming people on Christmas Eve using someone's else's platform. Tacky."

But yeah... this site isn't working. I'm thinking of scrapping it and writing an app/browser extension that automatically enters you into sweepstakes. Let's say Person A enters 10 sweepstakes on different websites. Person B enters 5 sweepstakes on different websites. When person C downloads the app, he will automatically be entered into the sweepstakes that Person A and Person B entered (via my magic backend system that I have yet to create). The more people that download the app and enter sweepstakes, the more sweepstakes everyone with the app will automatically be entered into. Now people will start winning prizes for literally doing nothing but downloading the app.

I'm learning this with my website (http://muxme.com), which is only a month old. I've pivoted about a hundred times, which makes me question what truth is, because literally every bit of copy, UX flow, and strategy has changed. Yesterday the site was personal, friendly, and quirky. Today the site attempts to create the illusion that we're multiple people operating a business. The one truth that is true and universal is that people can enter and win with no purchase necessary, which is what the website revolves around.

Yeah I've definitely considered it. It's on my list of things to do, but I'm also sort of experimenting with the website and trying to optimize the user experience and make the site fun.

Changing it to "How It Works" was a really good idea. Thanks.

Thanks for the feedback, I'll take it into account and possibly change that.

The more people that enter the giveaways, the less of a chance you have to win. There's a guaranteed winner every time and your odds are 1/(total number of entries).

Thanks, I've had my ups and downs the past month but contacting the winners and hearing their responses is what keeps me going. I appreciate the comment.

I agree that if I had a business guy that could do a solid pitch that I could get the donations from companies. The website is also very experimental right now, so I think I'm going to keep it up and figure out a good model before introducing people and companies into the mix. The great thing is that the website is currently a hobby project, so I can do whatever I want to it without being forced to do something I disagree with.

That's very valuable feedback. Thank you for telling me that you thought I was listing random free items and made money with affiliate links. I like the idea of making an extremely visible "about" at the top of the page so that a first time visitor reads what the site is about before making an assumption.

You're absolutely right that the more people you tell, the less of a chance you have to win. The model is flawed right now. The winners are telling their friends (or even friends are asking the winners how they are taking them out to dinner), so if I could somehow get more winners with a low budget, then the site would be a success.

My goal is to work on the website full time. It makes me very happy running the site and I'd say it's the only thing I think or care about. Also, I thought that maybe some of the users are interested in learning programming and I could create Youtube videos to teach them how to make websites/program. I've always wanted to be a teacher.

Yeah, the prizes are paid for out of pocket by me. It's not the most expensive project in the world, let's say I average $50/day ($1,500/month) in gift card costs and $10/month on a server. I live in a 42 square foot room and share an apartment with 5 people, so I'd say that the expenses are taken care of from my choice of a frugal lifestyle (we're talking Manhattan, New York rent here). Those are my only expenses to run and maintain the site. The risk of $1,500/month for a couple of months to possibly achieve my dream is a no-brainer.

My goal is growth. Craigslist is a great example of a site that I want to be like. Offer an awesome service for free. I'd like to have companies fund the giveaways or maybe even have companies pay to have their giveaways featured as a top result. I don't really know yet. I'm sure there's some win-win situation that I haven't thought of where the users get awesome free stuff and there's a way for me to work on the website full time.

I'm not worried about money, I'm worried about growth. There are services like RaffleCopter / Gleam / KingSumo / Woobox / etc. which let you create Sweepstakes to promote viral growth for your website or business.

1) I post a receipt of the item, have a video drawing of the sweepstake, and post the tracking number of the package after it's sent out. Short of revealing the winners name, I don't know what other proof I can provide (although googling the user's usernames reveals quite a bit about them, I encourage them to change their usernames). I understand what you mean, on first glance I can see how people think the site is a scam.

2) I show how many people enter, so the odds are 1/(total number of entries). I was thinking of requiring a valid/unique phone number on registration and require the users to input the code I text them. Think of Craigslist / Chatroulette / etc.

I don't envision any people from Hacker News using the site on a daily basis. In fact, I posted it here as a "Show HN" and a whooping <10 people visited. There are people where an extra $25 means getting to take your daughter out to dinner when she announces she's engaged or an extra $100 means you get to pay your bills on time for the month (real winner stories so far). What really pushes me to work on the site every day is that even if the site fails to grow, at the end of the day, I've helped people without asking for anything in return.

I appreciate the comments.

I'm running into the growth problem with my website: http://muxme.com. Lots of people say the love the website, but it seems like no one is telling their friends. I was thinking of maybe adding user created sweepstakes, because I think the only way people would spontaneously tell their friend is if they win something from the site. More winners = more people telling their friends, but I can only go so far on my budget. What do you guys think?